Karen Zelas
| Website | http://karendzelas.com |
Karen is a former psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She has been writing seriously for the last fifteen years, since attending creative writing papers at the University of Canterbury and relinquishing her clinical practice. She is married, with children and grandchildren. Karen is the author of five books of poetry: Night’s Glass Table (Interactive Publications, Brisbane, 2012) which won the 2012 IP Picks Award for Best First Book; feathers unfettered: 25 New Zealand birds (Pukeko Publications, 2014); I am Minerva (Makaro Press, Submarine imprint, 2016). The Trials of Minnie Dean (Makaro Press, Submarine imprint, 2017), for which she was the recipient of a free NZSA manuscript assessment. This was developed into a radio drama with the collaboration of Plains FM. Her most recent poetry collection is Threads (Pukeko Publications, 2022) which includes the long poem Geography of Loss, a stage drama. Karen’s poetry appears in many anthologies, including Essential New Zealand Poems: facing the empty page (Random House, 2014) and has been published widely within New Zealand, and also in Australia, England and Israel, USA and longlisted in the 2017 Fish Poetry Competition. A collection of her poetry was shortlisted in the Kathleen Grattan Award 2013 and individual poems have won or been placed in various other competitions within New Zealand. Currently Karen is writing a trilogy of crime/legal procedural novels. The first - Resolutions - published in 2022; the second - Safekeeping - is currently looking for a publisher, and the third is underway. Full productions have been staged of two of Karen’s plays: Geography of Loss (a poetic family memoir) in 2014 and Poverty and Muse (the life and art of Frances Hodgkins) in 2017. Poverty and Muse was the winner of the 2013 Playwrights Assn of NZ New Script Competition. Karen's first published novel was Past Perfect (Wily Publications, 2010), and she edited the anthology Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury, prose & poetry (Wily Publications, 2009). Karen was fiction editor of takahe from 2007-2017 and has established a small indie publishing venture, Pukeko Publications. She can be contacted through her website. All publications available through the website: www.pukeko-pukapuka.com or pukekopublications@gmail.com
Genre:
Skills:
Branch:
Canterbury
Location:
Christchurch
Publications:
The Trials of Minnie Dean: a verse biography
Minnie Dean: the first – and only – woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Baby farmer and child murderer, or hardworking wife and mother, supporting her family by caring for unwanted children in a society that shunned her? Zelas explores the trials of Minnie Dean using a myriad of voices, including Dean’s own, from her childhood in Scotland to the gallows in Invercargill, 1895. She brings to life the society in which Dean lived and, poet as psychiatrist, re-examines key witnesses. Bridging poetry and biography, James Norcliffe has called this book genre busting. Published by Makaro Press, Submarine Imprint, 2017
I am Minerva
I am Minerva begins with a light-hearted selfie and ends with the writer’s realisation that – like the goddess Minerva – she is a custodian of words and creativity and even wisdom. A poet no less. In between the selfie and the self-realisation, Karen Zelas explores with intense fascination the people and histories that inform her life. There is colour here and humour too, and a sense of excitement at the myriad and sometimes surprising ways human beings make their way on this planet, with or without the gods. Published by Makaro Press, Submarine Imprint, 2016
feathers unfettered: 25 New Zealand birds
feathers unfettered features poetic and visual portraits of 25 New Zealand birds, some common garden, forest or sea birds, others in danger of extinction. The poems and drawings ‘speak’ to each other. Both are ornithologically accurate, while at the same time fanciful. The book is structured in a ‘scientific’ manner, in alphabetical order by Maori name, giving also species names and common names. Zelas’s poems portray the birds’ physical and behavioural characteristics, sometimes with a twist that alludes to their relationship with humans or the environment. Napier artist/poet Jan FitzGerald is well-known for her charming, indigenous-style illustrations, which locate the birds firmly in Aotearoa New Zealand. Published by Pukeko Publications, 2014
Night's Glass Table
Winner of the 2012 IP Picks Best First Book Award; published by Interactive Publications, Brisbane. The poems in Night's Glass Table are tight and emotionally powerful, and deal with themes such as death, grief and love. Zelas chooses her words with care, and her poems are always eloquent and evocative. She demonstrates a sound use of conventions, and her writing is well-crafted and technically excellent.
Past Perfect
This novel about the French settlement of Akaroa, is set in both 1840 and the twenty-first century. Set against a well-researched historical background, it is a story of love and loss, prejudice and resolution, enriched by the complexity that makes up our past. Published by Wily Publications, 2010
Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury, prose & poetry
An anthology of writings about Canterbury gleaned from 78 New Zealand authors, poetry, fiction and memoir. Published by Wily Publications, 2009
Threads
Threads is a poetry book about family – the genetic strands that run through generations; the ties of love and belonging that bind.
ISBN: 978-0-473-65686-7
A5 130 pages b&w soft cover